Si and Shookz Take Over With Dope Party Music

One Bomb is an explosive live dance act hailing from the Midlands, formed by the joining of two passionate artists who all share a love for cutting edge electronic music. The band is made up of Si Tew (Keys, Synth, Bass), Shookz (Beats, Samples, FX) and Guest Vocalist’s.

With dirty bass lines, catchy hooks and glitched beats fused with haunting vocals, atmospheric sounds and an inventive use of samples, One Bomb carves an original blend of urban music that is aimed directly at the dance floor. By fusing together their House, Garage, Hip Hop, Drum & Bass and other musical influences One Bomb show their lack of regard for genre, caring only for a passionate, high-energy performance.

One Bomb have hit alot of targets fast with lots of Radio Support with there tracks, Take Over got Play listed by 1xtra, they went into to BBC Introducing to record a live session and plenty of awesome gigs including there first festival show at Strawberry Fields.

We meet up with the energetic duo Si and Shookz and we have a bunch of questions for them!

Hi there! Tell us a little more about you and how you got involved with music in the very beginning. What fascinated you about music?

Si: I used to play guitar as a kid and then learnt a few other instruments as I grew up, but it was when I first saw someone DJ that music really hooked me. I was really intrigued by electronic music and when I saw someone mixing and creating their own songs with acapella’s and instrumentals, I knew I wanted to get involved.

Shookz: From an early age I was taken to listen to my Dad and Brother in their bands (sometimes sneaking a Walkman into gigs so I could listen to some of my music). A few years on when I started Secondary school, a friend let me borrow an old rave tape, from then I was hooked!! As a young teenager I got an old pair of Decks, DJ Mixer and a few random records for Christmas and then began to experiment with Dance Music, Hip Hop, Hardcore & Jungle. It all started from there and I knew that music was the only thing for me.

Who would you point as a key influence to you?

Both of us are into DJ Zinc, so he is definitely an influence of the One Bomb sound. Others include Modeselektor, Calvin Harris, Bonobo and Rudimental. We’re into a very wide variety of music so our influences could come from anyone, or even what’s going on in our lives at the time.

Why One Bomb?

Si: I used to teach kids in Nottingham how to write music and I picked up a lot of the language they used. If you ‘One Bomb’ someone it means to knock them out in one punch and we thought it was fitting, as our music will knock you out the first time you hear it!

Which is your own favorite track?

It’s hard to say, but if we had to choose out of the songs we have out,we would go with ‘Take Over’. It was the first thing we did as One Bomb and the song grew organically with Aja on vocals and then Jackdalad coming in towards the end of the project to drop his lyrical performance. We have a load of new music in the vault and there are a couple in there that will definitely be competing with ‘Take Over’ for our favourite song.

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How was the composing process going when you are working in the studio?

Si: We both have our individual roles within the production process, so there is no drama when working together. Over the time we have worked together we have worked out who is naturally better at certain skills and they then tend to concentrate a little more on that.

Shookz: When we’re in the studio we spend a lot of time experimenting with sounds, whether that is recording new percussion or creating new synth patches. The more interesting the sounds are the better the song will be at the end of it, so we put emphasis on getting our noises in order.

When you start working on a new track, how do you know that the track is going good?

Si: I’m not sure really. You can just feel if it’s working or not. And if its not working then we are not scared of deleting things and starting again!

Shookz: After a session on a track you can normally tell if it’s sounding good or not. We’re very tight with the sounds we use because we want everything to sound the best it possibly can, so having a good quality control on sounds and ideas helps.

What makes, in your opinion, the difference between an average and a great song? According to you how does a good song sound?

So long as all of your elements are the best they can be, such as your chords, lead line, lyrics, sounds and arrangement, then your song will be strong. It’s about not letting anything pass quality control unless it is great.

Si: I heard a great piece of advice, I can’t remember where from though! It is that a piece of music is finished not when you can’t add any more elements, but when you can’t remove any more elements. For me, a great song needs to have an interesting beat, big bassline and some kind of interesting hook, whether vocal or instrumental.

What is happening with the tracks that didn’t make it to the audience? Do they get a second chance?

Si: No I doubt it. If they didn’t make the cut the first time then it will be even harder the second time as we are always developing and improving our sound. We will sometimes reuse elements of them, but even if not we don’t see it as a waste as everything you write is part of the process of improving. We are in the process of writing a lot of new songs and a lot of these won’t ever see the light of day, but just by creating them we are developing our sound and hopefully getting closer to that one banger that people listen to all round the world.

Shookz: We try and raise the bar with every track we make, so ideas won’t really get a second chance. Like Si said, we might take certain ideas from unfinished tracks if we’re really feeling them but we make so many tracks that it isn’t worth trying to make everyone work.

Tell us a little more about your “Take over” where you collaborate with Aja and Jackdalad? How you come up with the idea for this collaboration?

We wrote the music for Take Over very early on in the project, the electronic lead sound was actually the first thing we ever did. We hadn’t met Aja by this time but knew we needed a strong female vocal so were keeping an eye and an ear out. After a little while developing the music we met Aja and all got in the studio to write and record the lyrics. We hadn’t considered having a rapper on the song, but we have been friends with Jackdalad for years and he heard it and instantly wrote to it, and sent us a rough version. As soon as both of us heard the vocal from Jack we arranged some studio time with him to get a proper take and the rest is history!